jeez louise, i just got the Pokedex and i'm already at nearly 3 and a half hours of playtime. can you tell just from that how long i take writing these??
aaaanyways, my playtime aside, as we head back to New Bark, this jokester stops us. they say they want a fight, i say we give 'em what's coming. interesting name you've got there, uh... ???. i mean, to be fair, i'm named after a literal personification of death, so i guess i don't have any room to speak. our friend ??? here has Cyndaquil as their only Pokemon, and i think from that you can piece together what's going on here. luckily, just like us, Cyndaquil doesn't have any elemental moves at level 5, so we're safe.
this is pretty much just a slap fight for that reason, though Jano's lackluster attack stats are not helping him in that case. he is pretty bulky at least, which is a plus. Jano actually took enough damage to get him into the health range where he ate his berry he came with, so that was interesting. i guess i haven't explained berries yet, have i? time to remedy that! as stated before, Pokemon can hold items in this game, and berries take full advantage of that. they activate when your Pokemon reaches a certain condition during battle. for the normal berry, it heals your Pokemon automatically when it gets to yellow health, but there's other types of berries that heal status conditions as well. i never find myself using them all that often since there's generally better held item options, but early on they can be pretty handy, like in this fight.
Jano actually leveled up after this fight, which is always nice. see, Jano? i never doubt you, little man. never ever.
by the way, no, i wasn't playing this up for a joke, they really are named ???. it's canon!
when we get back to see Elm, there's a cop talking to him about the stolen Pokemon. i'm asked if i got the perpetrator's name, and while i don't usually like to help cops, my hand's kind of being forced here. now, canonically, this character is male. however, as kids, both i and many others intepreted their sprite as having a miniskirt, and thought they were female. so, for this playthrough, we're headcanoning trans Silver! i figured Lilac would be a good name for her, since her hair is purple and all that.
typical cop behavior, misgendering her... no wonder she's a delinquent.
well, we give the MYSTERY EGG to Elm, and he's so blown away by its awesome power that he steps back one tile. that's some serious business. once he hears that Oak gave us a Pokedex, he recommends that we go take on the Gym Challenge, and that the closest gym is in Violet City, but not before telling mom goodbye. you can actually leave without saying anything, and if you do you get some unique dialog where she calls you and says that Elm told her where you were going, and wishes you had seen her in person. now, i personally have a good relationship with my real mom, and as such even if it's in a videogame, seeing my mom say she's sad you didn't tell her you were going on an adventure makes my heart sink, and i simply don't have the mental fortitude to do such a thing, so we're going to go see her.
...not before getting interrupted again! geez, you'd think this guy would take a hint... also, he says "take these!" and then gives us "POKe BALL" (singular). but then, when you check your back, there's five! the plot thickens!
upon telling mom we're leaving, she insists that she do something to help us on our journey, deciding that saving some money for us would be helpful. what this means is that every time you win a battle, a portion of your fight money goes to mom. you can withdraw the money when you go see her, and she can buy items for you and put them in your pc. now, a lot of people don't like this feature, they don't like not having all their money, they don't like mom spending it randomly, i get that. but personally? i love the random phone calls you get from mom every so often. it sort of makes me think of the phone calls you can have with your mom in Earthbound, so i always keep this option on. you do whatever you like, though.
well, upon heading west again, this chump asks us if we know how to catch Pokemon. clearly he doesn't know about the great Mot, catcher of every Pokemon in the Galar reigon! (just don't tell him my "evolving Pokemon" status and we should be good to keep the ruse up.) this is pretty much a tutorial for catching Pokemon, but any tutorial the game can do, i can do better!
catching Pokemon is simple. i'm sure you know the drill, get em down to low health, throw a pokeball, and three shakes later you've got a new buddy to call your own. it's logged into the Pokedex, and any statuses you give a Pokemon will increase its chances of being caught. i won't be using this Pidgey, but you know i'll be giving it a funny name. ever since i was a kid, i've always made sure to give every Pokemon i catch a unique nickname. i mean, come on, what's more interesting, seeing boxes full of normal Pokemon, or boxes full of Pokemon named things like "Doodle Dip" or "Sega Genesis"? that's what i thought. also, side note, i always try to avoid grass as much as possible before getting Pokeballs, because i'm scared i'm gonna run into a shiny before i even have the tools to catch it! i know its an extremely small chance, but knowing my luck historically, i wouldn't ever rule it out entirely. plus, i've heard horror stories of people seeing Wally catch a shiny Ralts in gen 3, or watching a shiny Graveler self destruct right before their eyes. i wouldn't ever want to fall victim to such a horrible fate. anyways, if you were curious, i named the Pidgey 'Chili,' since i think that's what my mom is cooking right now.
anyways, on the way back to Cherrygrove, Jano leveled up, and now knows his first Grass move, Razor Leaf! i'm becoming more and more proud of him by the day...